Welcome to the Working Week...Demons and their Jobs in Medieval Art
top of page
To search posts for specific subjects, please go to topics.
In my last post, I began the Herculean task of trying to give a general overview of demons in medieval art. I came away from writing...
Carolyn Whitson
- Feb 3
- 5 min
Devil's Gonna Get You!
13th c. capital of a sinner being devoured, Saint Pierre, Chauvigny, France A nasty case of Covid pretty much bankrupted my energy for...
135 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Dec 28, 2023
- 9 min
Angels We Have Seen On High
I thought I'd finish out our year with something light-hearted and ravishingly beautiful. The West Window of Worcester Cathedral was...
51 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Nov 27, 2023
- 10 min
Everything Old is New Again: The Watts Memorial Chapel
One of the bittersweet realities for lovers of Romanesque art is that the majority of it exists in a state of decay and dislocation. ...
55 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Sep 5, 2023
- 5 min
The "Three Living Meet Three Dead" Fresco by Buonamico Buffalmacco, 1336
Some art seems to have a life of its own, its own vitality and presence which can make it seem like a character in its own right. The...
131 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Aug 10, 2023
- 9 min
What Becomes a Martyr Most? Part 3 of the di Balduccio Monument of Milan
di Balduccio monument for Saint Peter of Verona, 1339 After having examined the larger sculptures at the base of this monument, we arrive...
96 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Jul 18, 2023
- 7 min
di Balduccio Monument--The Christian Virtues
Capturing the back of the sarcophagus of Saint Peter Martyr is much trickier than photographing the front. The apse is quite close by,...
51 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Jul 9, 2023
- 6 min
The di Balduccio Tomb--the Pagan Virtues
As much as I love medieval art that strikes me as bizarre, I really love it when I come across works which are marvels of symbolic...
103 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Nov 6, 2022
- 2 min
Origins of Sirens
On October 25th, 2022, I gave a lecture at Metropolitan State University on the Origins of Sirens. In the presentation, I trace how...
53 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Aug 16, 2022
- 5 min
Time Travel through the French Monuments Museum in Paris
I love when a museum makes learning fun. The French Monuments Museum (FMM, for brevity here) in Paris gives a presentation that is...
39 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Dec 26, 2021
- 6 min
What Child is *This*?
Medieval artists had a standard repertoire of scenes from the life of Jesus to reproduce in churches and personal religious items. ...
94 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Sep 5, 2021
- 7 min
Crypt of the Original Sin
Caves evoke mystery to a modern person. We're so used to having all the light we want, wherever and whenever we go. Our interiors are...
248 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Jul 10, 2021
- 4 min
The Lion King, Part 2
The use of lions in medieval religious and political art hews closely to the traditions inherited from around the Mediterranean. Lions...
98 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Jun 5, 2021
- 9 min
The River God(father)
Baptism changed both in its practice and its artistic representation from its introduction in the Gospels to its depictions across...
141 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- May 19, 2021
- 9 min
Chasing a Ghost Along the Pilgrimage Trail
When I began to study medieval art in graduate school, I found myself often puzzling over murky, low-contrast images in black-and-white,...
101 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Apr 30, 2021
- 6 min
"A Present of Things Past . . . A Present of Things to Come"
In this post, a few thoughts on why medieval churches cover themselves in stories. There are three times: a present of things past, a...
34 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Apr 22, 2021
- 5 min
What Lies Beneath, Part 2
For such a small patch of excavated floor, the mosaic pavement in the abbey at Bobbio (under the current basilica) has a number of...
108 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Apr 16, 2021
- 6 min
What Lies Beneath, Part 1
The lovely town of Bobbio has always been small and out of the way, but in the early 600s, this was exactly what the Irish abbot St....
103 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Apr 9, 2021
- 7 min
Fabulous Fakes
Many's the time I've gotten excited by the prospect of visiting a medieval church, only to find that "medieval" mostly referred to the...
128 views1 comment
Carolyn Whitson
- Mar 26, 2021
- 7 min
Medusssssssssa!
Modern representations of the snake-haired woman depict her as a dangerous beauty, but the Ancient Greek and Roman images show her as...
127 views1 comment
bottom of page